Michigan

Daily Police Beat: Angry patron assaults cashier

An Ann Arbor grocery store cashier was assaulted Tuesday night by a customer who was angry about being overcharged on an item, police reports said.

Officers were called to the Kroger at 2502 Packard Road for an assault shortly after 8 p.m. Reports said a 19-year-old cashier said a customer he had problems with in the recent past grabbed him by the shirt collar and forced him against a cash register. The cashier said he recognized the customer from a dispute about two weeks ago over an item that scanned for the wrong price.

The assailant used a checkout lane next to where the victim was stationed Monday and threatened him as he walked by, the employee said. He then peered angrily at the clerk on his way out of store.

When the clerk waved, the man became enraged, stormed back into the store and grabbed him, police reports said.

The assailant, a 40-year-old Ann Arbor man, acknowledged there was a prior dispute but said the employee antagonized him by slamming a collection of grocery baskets down by the man's feet as he walked by and by giving him the middle finger, reports said.
The man was released pending further investigation. The employee was not injured.

Girls say man pulled gun on them

Two teenage girls say a man pulled a gun on another man on the University of Michigan's Diag Monday, then walked toward them brandishing the weapon, campus police reported.

The incident prompted the U-M Department of Public Safety to issue a crime alert to the campus community Tuesday.

The girls told police the man threatened them before tucking the gun into his waistband and walking away. The incident occurred Monday just after 1:30 p.m. near the southeast corner of the Diag, north of the West Hall arch.

Officers did not locate the gunman, who was described as white, 18 to 25 years old and 5 feet 7 inches tall. He had broad shoulders and dirty blonde, short hair. He was last seen wearing a black and white baseball cap, sweatshirt with a zipper, a white T-shirt with green and blue writing on the front, and black sweatpants.

Police asked anyone with information to call 734-763-1131.

Man tries to use stolen credit cards

Ann Arbor police said they arrested a man who tried to use multiple stolen credit cards to secure a downtown hotel room Tuesday night.
Officers arrested the man, who is believed to be in his 30s, inside a room this morning at the Campus Inn, 615 E. Huron Street. Police found multiple credit cards and several out-of-state driver's licenses, Detective Amy Ellinger said.

The man and a friend entered the hotel Tuesday night and passed two credit cards that came up lost or stolen, reports said. They secured a room with a third card, but employees at the hotel called police a few hours later.

The fraudulent credit cards had the same names as one of his driver's licenses, but detectives are trying to determine his true identity, who the cards belonged to and how he got them. The driver's licenses show birth dates ranging from 1976 to 1979.

The suspect remains in the Washtenaw County Jail pending formal charges for fraud.